“Silicon Valley! Silicon Town!”
And there’s the chorus! This number called… well… “Silicon Valley” by the experimental synth artist named Jyl passed through my ears again today, as it’s on a number of playlists I fire up once in a while when I’m doing things in the studio or just peering out the window like I did today, to see Glasgow enveloped in a cold, dense, wintry fog.
There’s only one album released by Jyl, and that’s a single, full-length album released back in 1984, also named Jyl. The name Jyl is the musician pseudonym of American artist Jill Porch, but also used for the name of her band that was pulled together to write and record the album, which includes a number of German musicians including Ingo Werner (of the German krautrock band My Solid Ground), Angela Werner (German synth-pop singer from the 80s, maybe related?) and Klaus Schulze of Tangerine Dream. There’s probably fragments of information that keen internet detectives can find out about online about how this collaboration came together but from what I know Jill Porch had relocated over to Europe to work in dance, eventually ending up in Germany and meeting up with like-minded collaborators that brought this project together.
As for myself, I don’t remember how I came across this album, but it was likely at some point in the late 2000s or early 2010s when I was peeling off the layers to discover of a lot of rare European synth, minimal, wave and electronic disco music. I’m always finding out about new music — old and new — often through some deep internet digs or sometimes the old fashioned way: in conversations with friends or digging through old record bins.
The album Jyl is ten tracks of top class electronic production for it’s time, with a great blend of drum machine, synthesizers and at times some pretty flashy guitar work, all backing the otherworldly and strange vocals of its singer. The track “Silicon Valley” is a laid back, space-y number, bringing in elements of space disco, ominous alien synths consisting of sync-reonant leads and bubbling sequenced bass, and with effected vocals that fluctuate between almost spoken word and the operatic. There’s some interesting chord progressions and transpositions going on in this one, as well as some textural, non-lexical vocal work in some of the verses which are fun to sing along with… “U-wah… u-wah… u-wah… u-wah… Wah! Wah! Wah! Wah!”, accompanied by a rather triumphant sounding, italo-ish synth lead.
Many electronic artists during this time period were fascinated with technology and the future, but the lyrical matter of this record seems to do it more accurately and precisely, albeit through a somewhat fantastic filter.
Up until very recently there wasn’t really much information on this record, and the LP pressing from the 80s was a rare collectors item until it was scooped up for a re-issue on the renowned Minimal Wave label a few years back.
Aside from that, prior to awareness of this artist by way of the re-issue, there was in fact one music video she did for the “single” on this album, “Mechanic Ballerina”, which you can watch here as I’m unable to embed it in this entry due to age restrictions in viewing it — likely due to the rather racy shots of hands running over sweaty mens’ chests and backs I’m guessing. It’s a mysterious performance art piece, with Jyl herself in a cavernous, dark space — covered in geometric, monochromatic body paint, dancing about and eventually becoming drenched in a viscous, translucent shower of slimy goo.
Overall, all the tracks on this one release are lost gems of European, art-house synth that get repeated listens around these them there parts.
It would seem Jill struck up a connection with collabator Angela Werner during these years, penning a couple of tracks from Werner’s Fantasy EP that came out around the same time — and indeed another great re-issue. I wasn’t really aware of Werner’s work, but was an artist that a number of folks I know in Germany grew up with. She had released a couple of albums on the German branch of the major label RCA in the early 1980s. A few years back while doing a string of Soft Riot shows in Germany as the lockdown pandemic restrictions were beginning to thaw in late 2021, I had the pleasure of performing a live set on the livestream from Bielefeld DE promoters Unter Null, that as the night progressed into the late hours had become a wash of atmospheric, dense smoke machine and endless shots of Pfeffi with all those in attendance. A friend Martina — of the Unter Null team — pulled out a great set of her vinyl favourites that included that was for me a blinding electro/disco track called “Aus Und Vorbei” from Angela Werner‘s debut 1981 self-titled album which I had never heard before. Again, an instant classic for me — maybe in some ways a German equivalent of a Donna Summer/Giorgio Moroder collaboration. I’ve included the extended version of that track below for listening. Again — for me — a discovery done the old fashioned way: talking about music, playing tracks to others and sharing discoveries.